Whose Line Is It Anyway? (U.S. TV Series)

From Iwe

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Genre	Comedy
Created by	Dan Patterson Mark Leveson
Presented by	Drew Carey Aisha Tyler
Starring	Ryan Stiles Colin Mochrie Wayne Brady
Country of origin	United States
No. of Seasons	12
No. of episodes	294 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Hat Trick Productions Warner Bros. Television Angst Productions Warner Horizon Television
Release
Original channel	ABC ABC Family The CW
Picture format	4:3 (ABC) HDTV 1080i (The CW)
Original run	August 5, 1998 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (UK TV series)
External links
Website

Whose Line is it Anyway? (often known as simply Whose Line?) is an improvisational comedy show, which was originally hosted by Drew Carey on ABC and ABC Family and ran from August 5, 1998 to December 15, 2007. A revival of the show, hosted by Aisha Tyler, began airing on The CW on July 16, 2013.

The series is a spin-off of the British show of the same name and features Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady as its regular performers with the fourth seat occupied by a guest panelist. All three regulars appeared on the British series; Stiles and Mochrie were regulars there as well while Brady was a frequent guest on the final season which moved production from London to Hollywood.

[edit] Format

[edit] Performers/players

[edit] Games

The number and type of games played varied from episode to episode. However, some games became more common over time, while others faded from use. New games were created throughout the run of both series. Some games are based on traditional improv games, while others were uniquely created for the series.

Game	Performers	Episodes Overall	Seasons
Game	Performers	Episodes Overall	1 1998-99	2 1999-00	3 2000-01	4 2001-02	5 2002-03	6 2004	7 2005	8 2005-07	9 2013	10 2014	11 2015	12 2016
Scenes from a Hat	All / Aisha	139	1	15	10	16	23	1	11	4	6	18	16	18
Greatest Hits	Colin, Ryan, Wayne / 4th Seat	94	9	13	16	9	7	5	10	5	2	6^[1]	8	4^[2]
Props	All / Drew	91	9	13	12	7	6	3	9	8	4	9	5	6
Hoedown	All / Drew	82	9	21	14	10	7	3	4	7		3	1	3
Weird Newscasters	All	78	13	16	8	9	5	3	3	3	3	6	6	3
Let's Make a Date	All	78	9	14	9	7	5	2	8	7	1	6	5	5
Duet	Wayne / 4th Seat	72	4	8	10	6	4	2	5	2	3	7	7	14
Song Styles	Wayne / 4th Seat	63	8	12	10	6	9		1	5	3	5	4	1
Helping Hands	Colin, Ryan / 4th Seat / Drew	55	6	2		3	7	1	3	3	6	8	7	9
Party Quirks	All	49	9	8	7	4	8	2	3	4		2	2
Questions Only	All	49	4	10	3	4	5	3	2	5	2		6	3
Newsflash	Colin, Ryan & 4th Seat	47	4^[3]	11	3	3	8	2	1	4	2	3	4	2
Hollywood Director	All	45			4	5	6	2	7	1	4	7	2	7
Living Scenery	All	43				4	7	2			6	9	7	7
Sound Effects	Colin & Ryan	42	5	6	7	4	4	1	9	2		3^[4]	2
Dubbing	All	33				2	5	1	2		5	7	5	6
Film TV and Theater Styles	Colin, Ryan & Wayne	32	3	11	9			2	1	6
Superheroes	All	32	2	8	8	2	4	2	3	3
Three-Headed Broadway Star	Colin / Ryan / Wayne / 4th Seat / Drew	29		9	11	3	3		2		1
World's Worst	All / Drew	29	1	3	3	5	4		2	2		3	3	3
Irish Drinking Song	All / Drew	28			6	4	7	2	3	1		3	2
Film Dub	All	26	2	3	1	3	3	1	4	2		4	1	2
Foreign Film Dub	All / Drew	21	3	4	3	4			4	3
Scene to Rap	All	21	6	4	5					6
Whose Line	Colin & Ryan	20		6	3	2	1		3	2		1	2
Doo-Wop	Wayne / Colin / Ryan / 4th Seat	19			1	2		1	3	1		2	4	5
Hats	All	18	4		3	2	4	1		3			1
Narrate	Colin & Ryan	16	1	4	4	2		2		3
Two-Line Vocabulary	Colin, Ryan & 4th Seat	15			3	4	3		3	2
Infomercial	Colin & Ryan	15			2	4	3		3			1		2
90 Second Alphabet	All / Drew	12	3	6	1			1		1
Moving People	Colin & Ryan	12	5	3			2			1				1^[5]
Motown Group	Wayne, 4th Seat / Colin / Ryan	12		3	5	1			3
Themed Restaurant	All / Drew	11		1	2		3	3					2
If You Know What I Mean	Colin, Ryan & Brad	10		2	1	2	4		1
Title Sequence	All	10		4		1	2			1
Secret	Colin & Ryan	10								2		5	2	1
Day Time Talk Show	All	9	3				1			5
Song Titles	All	9		3	2	2			2
Number of Words	All	9		4					3	2
Stand, Sit, Lie/Bend	Colin, Ryan / 4th Seat / Drew	8	3	2			1			2
Improbable Mission	Colin & Ryan	8		1	2	1	2	1		1
Dead Bodies	Colin, Ryan / 4th Seat / Drew	7	1		1				1	2			2
Sportcasters	All	7	2			1	2			2
The Millionaire Show	All	7		3	4
Show-Stopping Number	Colin, Ryan & Wayne	7			1	3	1		2
Press Conference	All	7				2	3	1	1
What's in the Bag	Colin, Ryan & Wayne	7									5	2
Multiple Personalities	Colin, Ryan & Greg	6	1		1	2	2
Action Replay	All	6			2	1		1	2
Award Show	All	6			3				2			1
Bartender	All	6					2		3	1
Sideways Scene	Colin, Wayne & 4th Seat	6									6
African Chant	Wayne	5		2	1			2
Hey, You Down There!	Colin, Ryan & 4th Seat	4	1						1	2
Quick Change	All / Drew	4		3						1
Change Letter	All	4					4
Telethon	All	3	2	1
Old Job-New Job	All	3		1						1			1
Scenes With An Audience Member	Colin & Ryan	3		1	2
Scenes Cut From a Movie	All	3			3
Scenes To Music	Colin, Ryan & Wayne	3					2			1
Forward Rewind	All	3									1	2
Remote Control	All	2				1			1
Funeral	Colin, Ryan & Greg	2					2
Backwards Scene	Colin, Ryan & Brad	2					1			1
Make a Monster	All	2					2
All In One Voice	All	2					1		1
Boogie Woogie Sisters	Ryan, Wayne & Brad	2					2
Game Show	All	2								2
Animals	Colin, Ryan & Brad	1	1
Change of Cast	All	1		1
Change Emotion	All	1		1
Ballad of	Wayne	1		1
What Are You Trying to Say?	Colin & Ryan	1			1
Survival Show	All	1			1
Reunion	Colin, Ryan & Greg	1			1
Wedding	All	1			1
Meet the Family	All	1				1
Really Bad Hangover	All	1							1
Ice Skaters	All	1								1
Shopping From Home	Colin & Ryan	1								1
Dating Profile	All	1									1

Note

^ Played with Greg instead of Ryan for 1 episode.
^ Played with Brad instead of Wayne for 1 episode.
^ Played with Drew instead of Colin for 1 episode.
^ Played with Greg instead of Ryan for 1 episode.
^ Played with Brad instead of Ryan.

While all games were designed to test the performers' improvisational comedy skills, some also tested other skills, such as singing, dancing, or impressions. Whose Line features a number of musical games, with one or more of the show's resident musicians playing live backing music. Occasionally, pre-recorded music was also used. While they had no bad feelings about it, many of the performers disliked the musical games (Stiles in particular frequently expressed open disdain towards the "Hoedown" game which became a bit of a running gag); Wayne Brady turned out to be well-suited to the musical games, with Chip Esten, Jeff Davis and Brad Sherwood also making frequent appearances as Wayne's duet partner. Only on rare occasions did Mochrie actually sing any lyrics. Instead, he would simply deliver his lines in a spoken word fashion.

Some games require suggestions for specific topics or situations. The host will sometimes call to the studio audience for suggestions, while for other games, this information is written by the production staff, or submitted by the audience in advance, and chosen from those submissions. The host also controls a buzzer, which will end most games (or individual sections of rapid-fire games).

[edit] History

[edit] Hiatus